Wash Plant Sluice Review

Angus Mackirk produces a number of ABS plastic sluices that cover the full array of sluicing applications, from stream sluices to cleanup sluices, to wash plant sluices.

I recently purchased a Wash Plant Sluice and ran it for the first time last week.

The Angus Mackirk (AM) website describes it as follows:

“Designed for use with a wash plant or trommel capable of processing up to 25 yards per hour the wash plant sluice is the perfect addition to a commercial plant to catch the fine gold.”

I have been using Gold Hog mats for over a year and recently added a section of Vortex matting to the Trommel sluices.

My emphasis has now shifted to reducing the amount of time necessary to perform a cleanup. The Gold Hog Mats do an excellent job of capturing all sizes of gold, but the cleanup process is a bit strenuous for an old guy like me, so the prospect of a “mat-less” sluice box is very appealing.

The AM sluices are made of ABS plastic and seem to be quite durable. However, they require a flume to support the sluice itself to maintain rigidity and prevent twisting under a load.

My 16″ x 10′ aluminum was perfect for this purpose and all we had to do was lay in the new sluice and slightly reduce the width of the feeder chute in order to focus the incoming flow into the new sluice.

The configuration of the AM Wash Plant sluice includes a “Header Box” which is really just a slick plate type tray which provides a landing spot for the slurry. The upstream end is sealed to prevent spillage to the upstream end.

For the first run, I placed a section of Vortex mat in the Header Box. I removed it for the second run. There was no noticeable different in the capture rate, but the Vortex took longer to clean than the bare sluice.

To perform a cleanup, the sluice is lifted from the flume, the downstream end of the sluice is placed in a bucket or tub and the riffles/pockets are rinsed clean from top to bottom. I used a Muck Bucket from Tractor Supply which performed perfectly.

A cleanup of each sluice can now be performed in about 60 seconds or so. That’s minutes less than any mat system I am aware of or have used.

Of the 4-1/2 grams of gold recovered on our most recent run, over half was under 30 mesh is size and a significant amount of that was 100-.

I am very pleased with the Angus Mackirk Washplant sluice and am moving forward to replace my primary, 8-1/2″ x 10′ sluice with another custom manufactured AM sluice. By the way, AM has the ability to provide just about any size sluice you need.

The Wash Plant sluice can be extended to any length desired by the addition of 2 foot sections. My sluice had a Header Box and two 2′ sections for a total length of 6′. The remaining 4′ was configured with Gold Hog mats. I will do the same thing with the Primary concentrates sluice on our reverse-helix trommel.

I have high praise for the Angus Mackirk sluice. When I called the company to discuss the particulars of what I was looking for, I had the privilege of speaking with Angus, “himself”. Being a fourth generation American, I told him I was disappointed he had no accent. Then I asked him if he wore a kilt and he said “No, only when I’m a drunk” 🙂 He is very knowledgeable, and a great resource to all of us in our pursuit of gold. In this day and age of texts and twitter and email, Angus prefers to do business the old fashioned way, with a personal conversation. A novel idea, eh?